Tanaka Tokuzo 1920-2007

[Kyoko Omori]

Just in case anybody is interested in attending a memorial for Tanaka  
Tokuzo, it is planned for Saturday, February 2nd at Kwansei Gakuin  
University, his alma mater in Hyogo Prefecture. Further details will  
be announced in newspapers in January. Tanaka was very active until  
the final days of his life, planning for the sequel to the short film  
Aaron mentions in his message. After he was hospitalized in late  
November for hip/back pains, he suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage  
and passed away on December 20.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two books (both in Japanese)  
about Tanaka's oeuvre. A freelance writer, Ayaba Kazuki interviewed  
Tanaka in the mid-1990s and published a book titled _Eiga ga koufuku  
datta koro._ I believe that the book is still in print. The other one  
is _RESPECT: Tanaka Tokuzo_ published in 2006.

Kyoko

=======
Kyoko Omori

Visiting Researcher (July 2007-August 2008) @ Waseda University,  
Tokyo, Japan
JSPS-SSRC Postdoctoral Fellow

Assistant Professor in Japanese
East Asian Languages & Literatures Department
Hamilton College
Clinton, New York, USA


On Dec 27, 2007, at 11:46 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:

>
>> Has anyone else noted that this director of chanbara died on  
>> December 20th? I actually haven't seen all that many of his films,  
>> so won't endeavour to write an appreciation of him myself - could  
>> someone more familiar with his oeuvre than I am do the honours?
>
> Thanks to Alex for mentioning this. I missed it in the end of  
> semester/pre-Christmas rush.
>
> I actually saw Tanaka in 2006 at the Mizoguchi Symposium, which has  
> now been put together in book form. He was quite lively and  
> entertaining, and reminded me of the vigor of his own films.
>
> He started out at Daiei working as an AD for Kurosawa (Rashomon)  
> and Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, Chikamatsu monogatari) before earning his  
> directorial debut in 1958. He is in some ways a director from my  
> youth, because I spent a year going to see the jidaigeki triple  
> features at the Thalia in NYC when I was at Columbia. Most of the  
> films were from Daiei, so Tanaka was a name I remembered from all  
> those Nemuri Kyoshiro and Zatoichi films I saw. While Misumi Kenji  
> was the most famous of the Daiai jidaigeki directors, it was Tanaka  
> and Ikehiro Kazuo who formed the journeyman core. After Daiei went  
> under, Tanaka continued to work in TV and thus I saw his name there  
> a lot too.
>
> According to the news reports, his last film project was helping  
> direct Shonen Kochi ondotori monogatari, a 35 minute entry in  
> Yoshimoto's Directors 100, which features 100 films made by  
> Yoshimoto Kogyo tarento. A trailer can be seen at:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAyq5wl1fkY
>
> Tanaka was genki enough to attend screenings of the film in November.
>
>
> Aaron Gerow
> KineJapan owner
>
> Assistant Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
>
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>
>
>
>